


where the heart is

by renecdote



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sick Buck, it's mostly comfort, very minor tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29834253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renecdote/pseuds/renecdote
Summary: “Hi,” Eddie whispers back. He slips a hand under Buck’s shirt, smoothing his palm over warm skin. He presses his lips to Buck’s temple, checking for a fever. If it’s there, it’s low, hard to be sure about without a thermometer. It settles some of the concern Eddie has been carrying all day, ever since Buck woke up feeling bad enough to call in sick for the first time all week.“Were you waiting up for me?” he asks, still quiet in the sleepy darkness.No plot, just Eddie getting home after a long shift ft some cuddling and worrying.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 30
Kudos: 329





	where the heart is

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'coming home'.

The only light on in the house is the lamp in the bedroom. Eddie takes off his boots in the dark, leaves his LAFD bag by the shoe rack, then finds his way forward by memory alone. The first few times he did this, stumbling home late at the end of a shift, he always bumped into the walls or stubbed his toe on furniture, but now it’s as easy as breathing. 

Christopher’s room is his first stop, the way it always is. Only the top of his kid’s head is visible under the covers, curls shining silver in the glimmer of moonlight that has snuck through the curtains. Eddie smiles, letting the seconds stretch out as he watches, the comfort of home melting away some of the stress of a long, chaotic shift. 

It melts further when he reaches his own bedroom. The yellow lamp light softens the edges of the room, blurring the shadows, chasing them away from the bed. Buck is asleep, breath whistling softly, still stuffy from the cold he has been battling all week. His phone is held loosely in his hand, like he fell asleep in the middle of reading, or waiting for a text from Eddie saying he was on his way home. Eddie carefully takes it and sits it on the bedside table before turning off the lamp. He strips down to his boxers and t-shirt as quietly as he can, kicking his clothes into a pile near the wall before he slips under the covers.

Buck stirs, sniffling, eyes cracking open just long enough to confirm it is Eddie. “Hi,” he mumbles, shuffling closer, arm heavy and warm as it slides around Eddie’s waist. 

“Hi,” Eddie whispers back. He slips a hand under Buck’s shirt, smoothing his palm over warm skin. He presses his lips to Buck’s temple, checking for a fever. If it’s there, it’s low, hard to be sure about without a thermometer. It settles some of the concern Eddie has been carrying all day, ever since Buck woke up feeling bad enough to call in sick for the first time all week. 

“Were you waiting up for me?” he asks, still quiet in the sleepy darkness.

Buck hums. “You sounded tired.”

On the phone, he means, when they spoke a few hours earlier. Eddie only managed to snatch a couple of minutes between dinner and the alarm ringing, the phone call hadn’t even lasted five minutes, but it was enough, apparently, for Buck to pick up on all the things he hadn’t had a chance to say. Things he probably wouldn’t have said anyway because he didn’t want Buck to worry. Some shifts are just bad, even if nothing particularly bad happens. It’s nothing worth dwelling on; they all know what the job is like. 

“Wanted to make sure you were okay,” Buck adds. There’s a certain irony to it, when his voice is thin and croaky and the words catch in his chest, making him cough. He rolls over, turning away so he doesn’t cough on Eddie, bracing a hand on his chest like it hurts. 

Eddie rubs his back, waiting until the coughing fit is over before he says, “I’m fine. I’ve been worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” Buck echoes him. He coughs again, then groans. “Okay, so I feel like crap, but it’s just a cold, Eds. I’ll be fine in a couple of days.”

It’s tempting to point out that he’d probably be feeling better already if he’d just taken time off to rest when he started feeling sick instead of pushing until he had no choice. But they’ve had that argument enough times this week and Eddie is too tired to rehash it now. Buck took today off and Eddie will make sure he takes tomorrow off too; there’s no need to say something that will probably make him feel like he needs to prove himself and go to work anyway. 

Eddie is incapable of holding his tongue completely though. “If that cough isn’t gone by Monday, you should go the doctor,” he says. “Make sure it hasn’t become something more than a cold.”

“You’re worse than Maddie,” Buck grumbles.

“We’re not allowed to care about you?”

Buck sighs. “I’m sorry.” He shifts again, rolling back over to press his face against Eddie’s shoulder. “I know you care.”

Eddie holds him, running a hand up and down his back, scratching lightly at the back of his head. He can’t fault Buck for being grumpy; God knows Eddie is even worse when he’s sick. The sinus infection he developed from a virus Chris brought home from school last year was the first real test of their relationship. Eddie had been miserable and he knows he made everyone around him pretty miserable as well. 

“It’s okay,” he says. He presses a kiss to the top of Buck’s head. “I know how you feel about doctors.”

Buck is quiet for a minute. His voice is muffled against Eddie’s t-shirt when he says, “I’ll go.”

It doesn’t feel like a victory when Buck sounds so resigned. Eddie knows he’s just worried about being told he has to take more time off work. After the ladder truck, then all the drama of the blood clots, Buck’s lingering aversion to doctors and hospitals isn’t really a surprise. He’ll go, but he won’t be happy for a second of it.

“We’ll see how you’re feeling on Monday,” Eddie says. Hopefully Buck’s cough will be gone and he’ll be back to his happy, healthy self, with no need for a doctor’s appointment at all. After a moment with no response, he adds, “Let’s just get some sleep, okay?”

He doesn’t get a verbal agreement, but he doesn’t really need one because Buck’s muscles are relaxing against him, breathing slowly evening out. Eddie is exhausted after his shift, but he holds onto consciousness long enough to listen, to make sure there is no wheeze to Buck’s breathing, no indication that his lungs are struggling. Buck is breathing through his mouth, snoring slightly because of his blocked nose, but the movement of his chest is deep, steady, unconcerning. Eddie knows he is right, that it’s just a cold and it will probably stay that way, but it’s never easy to turn off the part of his brain that worries. Between being a dad and being a medic, Eddie feels like he’s spent half his life primed for the worst case scenario. 

But there is no worst case scenario tonight. There is just the promise of rest at the end of a long shift, Buck and Christopher both sleeping peacefully, the comforting weight of home pressing in on all of them. Eddie is probably going to wake up with drool on his shirt in the morning, but it’s a distant thought, a problem for the morning. For now, there is only Buck’s warmth and the calm of the house at night and, when Eddie finally slips into sleep, nothing but good dreams. 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you for reading. Kudos and comments are love 💛 And you can also find me on tumblr [here](https://renecdote.tumblr.com/).


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